Willa Player

• In Event: 16.028 - "Outrageous, Audacious, Courageous": Writing "Womanist" Biography in Education

Abstract

When named as Bennett College’s first female president, Dr. Willa B. Player also became the first Black Woman to lead a four-year, fully-accredited liberal arts college in the United States. She attended Akron University before transferring to Ohio Wesleyan, from which she graduated in 1929. After receiving her master’s degree from Oberlin College in 1930, she was hired as an instructor at Bennett College where she taught Latin and French. Player earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1948. Her dissertation study focused on the curriculum for Black collegiate women at Bennett and provided recommendations for its improvement. An influential “player” in the development of African American Women’s higher education in the 20th century, Player shaped the academic and civic experiences of the 10 classes of women that enrolled and graduated from Bennett College under her tenure as president.

Primary documents used in this study are archival documents from the Thomas F. Holgate Library at Bennett College and educational writings of Dr. Player. Player’s educational writings, particularly her dissertation study on the curriculum at Bennett College, are read with a Womanist perspective as she centers the purposes of educating Black Women collegians on the raced, gendered and classed experiences they will likely face post-graduation. As a political activist, Player demonstrates educational leadership throughout the Civil Rights Era, a time when presidents of Black colleges were still predominantly male and white. Player used her position to not only shape the education of her students, but was also a major supporter of the goals of the movement. This is best demonstrated when she opened the doors of Bennett College to host Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to speak to all students in Greensboro.

To write the story of Dr. Willa Player is to continue to craft the legacy forged by 19th and early 20th century African American Women intellectual activists like Mary McLeod Bethune and Anna Julia Cooper. Because Player’s educational career (and life) spanned the entire 20th century, her story lends itself to explore a variety of themes and issues associated with Black Women in the academy. Furthermore, this study contributes to historical literature that illuminates African American Women leaders and administrators in higher education.

Author

• Katherine Ica Elizabeth Wheatle, Indiana University - Bloomington